This young woman, although not a great speaker per se, put together a great speech. Ten minutes of relevant and important points in America, especially for the younger generation as well positions of "authority"!

My initial reaction was "Just be grateful you CAN go to school without being shot."

Yes of course she has a point, but I don't believe that anybody, however privileged, has had education handed to them on a plate. Nor should they: it's about being equipped with the tools you need in order to educate yourself. I don't think it's right that such an important thing should be handed over to the state, or anybody else. If you delegate it, who is to say what your education should cover? So don't delegate it - control it.

Unfortunately, she is right. Too many school systems today are merely teaching a curriculum that allows the students to pass standardized tests designed to determine how well the schools are doing and not the students. It wasn't until I got to college and took an American history class that I really began to understand why some events happened and the repercussions of these events rather than just the dates that these events happened. Too much time is spent on pigeon holing students into categories for the sake of putting them into categories. The American education system is failing and I will bet you the faculty and staff of that young ladies school spoke more about her nerve in criticizing the system than they will trying to change it for the better.

We are doomed.
The brainwashing she speaks of has invaded every aspect of our lives. We are headed for a society that will closely resemble the cartoon Wall-E. Incapable of our own thought, our own decisions, unable to exercise our own mind. Can it be changed?

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each."
Plato

I think the idea is to get a piece of paper to prove to employers that you have enough basic knowledge, work ethic, organisation and brain cells to do a job. It's in the workforce that we start our deeper education.

I cwas lucky enough,to have mostly rebelious ,foward thinking teachers and professors,that taught me how to learn,and the think for myself.Question EVERYTHING.
(Which is kind of counter to what most people think cops do)

Don't worry about perfection.It's alway better to understand what you've learned,than learning a subject to mearly pass a test,and forget everything about it the next day.

Memorization is good,comprehension is 100 times better.

It's funny that in some of the comments,one poster calls her a brat.Well,people like that just buy into a system that been broken for some time.The same system stifles all creativity,and individual thinking.We haven't been to the moon since December of 1972.Our education system is at least partially to blame for that.(yeah I know,we never went to the moon,dispite the mountains of evidence we actually did,crazy person)

Brat? She did what was expected of her by her school and did it better than anyone else at that school, And still has the smarts to know that the education she got could have been better. That school shouldn't be upset, they should be embarrassed. I'm sure the district will take a look now to see where they failed her, well, maybe not. If they have the same kind of FCAT testing as here in Florida, where, as I said before, is testing to see how the school is doing, and the teachers and students spend their time, teaching and learning just to pass these tests, the the students are being cheated. Props to her for standing up to a useless failing system. Don't you just hate it when common sense shows up the hierarchy. As my signature says, She is a Realist in a world full of Dreamers.

Brat? She did what was expected of her by her school and did it better than anyone else at that school, And still has the smarts to know that the education she got could have been better. That school shouldn't be upset, they should be embarrassed. I'm sure the district will take a look now to see where they failed her, well, maybe not. If they have the same kind of FCAT testing as here in Florida, where, as I said before, is testing to see how the school is doing, and the teachers and students spend their time, teaching and learning just to pass these tests, the the students are being cheated. Props to her for standing up to a useless failing system. Don't you just hate it when common sense shows up the hierarchy. As my signature says, She is a Realist in a world full of Dreamers.

Couldn't agree more.

The "how and why", reasoning, logic, critical thinking etc. is not important background in the Prussian education model.

I cwas lucky enough,to have mostly rebelious ,foward thinking teachers and professors,that taught me how to learn,and the think for myself.Question EVERYTHING.
(Which is kind of counter to what most people think cops do)

Don't worry about perfection.It's alway better to understand what you've learned,than learning a subject to mearly pass a test,and forget everything about it the next day.

Memorization is good,comprehension is 100 times better.

It's funny that in some of the comments,one poster calls her a brat.Well,people like that just buy into a system that been broken for some time.The same system stifles all creativity,and individual thinking.We haven't been to the moon since December of 1972.Our education system is at least partially to blame for that.(yeah I know,we never went to the moon,dispite the mountains of evidence we actually did,crazy person)

Steve B

Good post, agree on all points. This especially rings true for music and arts education, or lack thereof!